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Healing Waters

Magazine

Healing Waters

Utilizing codfish harvested from the North Atlantic Ocean in a groundbreaking manner, innovative company Kerecis is an emerging leader in the global medical industry.

Published in the 2014 April-May issue of Iceland Review – IR 02.14. By Ásta Andrésdóttir. Photos by Páll Stefánsson.

“One gram of this is worth more than a gram of gold,” says Guðmundur Fertram Sigurjónsson, co-founder and CEO of Kerecis. Between his fingers he is holding a small, tough and colorless strip of fish skin. “A completely sustainable material, this is a byproduct of the food industry, readily available to us fresh from the sea, five minutes away from our laboratories.”

Founded in 2009, this Icelandic development and manufacturing company believes it can attain global success on the hospital market with its patented FDA-approved range of medical products which accelerate wound healing and tissue reconstruction. The technology, called MariGen Omega3, is based on intact fish skin sheets that have had all cells and antigenic materials removed. “Fish skin is largely made from the same material as human skin, with the addition of Omega-3 fatty acids,” explains Guðmundur. “When inserted into, or placed onto, damaged human tissue, it recruits the body’s own cells, is incorporated into the wound and ultimately converted into functional, living tissue.”

You can read the remainder of this article in the April-May issue of Iceland Review – IR 02.14. Five times a year the print edition of Iceland Review & Atlantica brings you a wealth of articles on all aspects of life in Iceland including Páll Stefánsson’s latest images of the country’s majestic landscape. Click here to subscribe.